We drove to Jacksonville & decided to stay the night after a long day of packing

and getting prep-ed for this MUCH need honeymoon.

The next morning we were up &

ready for the last 4 hours on the road but before that

we hoped over to the Waffle House for breakfast...

classy I know. Aaron LOVES the Waffle House.

"Now that we are married. You can only order from the dollar menu." -Aaron

It didn't seem like four hours before arriving to Tampa

{a picture of a picture}

"No. Let's keep our bags in the picture. We look like tourist." -Aaron

On the ship. We couldn't stand to do much until we knew our suitcases were safe

& tucked in our rooms. So we waited...

...It was actually nice to just sit & relax for a moment.

It's true. Wedding Planning is exhausting.

After our clothes were tucked away in the closets & everything

was in it'ss place.. we began to explore the ship.

Picked out our excursions...

& ended up back at the room to watch the sail away.

It's become a tradition to sit on the balcony as we venture on.

Q: Are you supposed to sleep as much as we did on the

honeymoon? 8 months of constant wedding planning... never stopping,

this wife was wore slap out!

.... when the evening arrived - the water was a bit rough

until we got far out into the ocean.

September = Hurricane season

however it was only September 5th.

------------------

Before we get started.
There is something you should know.

Aaron developed this love for
"fighting the towel buddies"

It was absolutely hilarious.

For some weird reason, he felt the need to karate chop or kick the towel buddy.

Got ready for dinner.

Our room service didn't really know how to

take clear pictures. But... the moment was captured.

{I pre-warned Aaron about how many pictures I planned on taking...}

Before dinner....

we watched a good & some not-so-good dance off.

These two were the best!

Loved this guy.

winner above

- {made me wanna puke, he knew he was good & I hate cocky people}

We ate late dinner every night.

&& was {supposed} to be sitting by ourselves but that didn't happen.

However we were grouped with two awesome couples... who were by far

completely different. {2nd couple never got photographed. I can kick myself for this}

Meet some great people at dinner.

Paul & Diana were celebrating their 10 year anniversary.

We still e-mail each other & happy to say they are expecting a little one.

Tried to watch the R-Rated comedy show however it was craZy packed.

Instead we ordered room service for dessert and

called it a night.

Day TWO:

A Fun Day at Sea

Hello Beautiful.

1} By far my favorite drink.

I've probably already put on 10 lbs JUST due to these already.

Aaron occasionally likes one out by the pool.

2} Games. Carnival always plays games...

These were a group of men having to come up with a dance to bet the ladies.

The women were horrible... hence no photo.

3} You know you're on your honeymoon when your non-PDA husband

plays footsie with you. For some mushy emotional reason, I will never forget

the smile I wore every time he did this.

.... 8 months later. We haven't played footsie since...

Bahahahaha!

had sushi for lunch &&

had some casino time losing $$$ left and right.

Ohhh but we had SO much fun.

&& lost every game playing bingo.

... before dinner.

You would've found watching Ice Age 2 which lead to napping

{everyday, shhhh}

Something about those cruise beds... I sleep like a baby.

....

...........

and then he found he too had a bathrobe....

There is never a dull moment in our household.

You gotta love a man-child.

The second night is usually Captains dinner.

This is your fanciest night for attire.

I may have won brownie point for bring my husbands

cookies... however what I did NOT learn is to tie a tie.

Whoops. This was pretty hilarious.

No tie.

Just as handsome as ever!

Our honeymoon was 100% relaxing.

We were so at ease and laid back that every night after dinner

we came back and changed. I did not prepare for this therefore you will see

double shirts being worn.

I was completely comfortable the entire time.

It was great.

One of my favorite pictures is above.

Oh gosh, I wish you all could meet Aaron.

He really is wonderful.

Once again, we didn't do much.

Before hitting the casino we decided to walk the ship

and see everything it had to offer.

So windy.

... & we ended out night in the Casnio.

Day Three

The Grand Cayman Islands

{we chose to skip on excursions at the Cayman Islands only because we've been here before and done pretty much what you can do... swim with sting rays - in which

scared the piss outta me & jeep tours, which was fun but not something to do again. However we've never spent much time on the beaches here & being we were only here for a handful of hours, we chose to enjoy the island itself}

Photo taken from our balcony.

Took a taxi to the beach.

Walked down & back up enjoying the view.

Of course he's looking for creatures of the sea...

instead he found a shell. ?!?!

How exciting, right?

Found our spot & soaked up the rays...

Notice our {Husband/Wife matching beach towels.. how fun???}

The water was breath taking.

After a few hours of hot sun...

we decided to grab lunch.

... walked through the town and found....

Ohh you didn't know???

We are Royal.

Two for one?

Hell YES!!

Weird picture but cool at the same time.

... playing with the camera, I figured out how to set the timer.

... little did I know he figured out what I was trying to do.

{hint: the blinking red light}

$63 later ...

& that was two for 1 with two appetizers.

YIKES!

Shortly after we decided to get back on board &...

no nap but play putt-putt

I sucked.

He blew me out of the water.

Dammit.

After so many cruises with Carnival you become a VIP

and they invite you to a private cocktail party before dinner.

Check out that {MRS} -

something a new wife always gets excited to see.

Such a poser. :)

Did a little dance {ritual} at dinner

I can always count on him to take awesome pictures!

After dinner. I changed for comfort...

ordered one two many Miami Vice' & we watched the talent show on the ship.

... found a little surprise in our room when we arrived.

Yummy!!!

Day Four

Cozumel, Mexico

but really for us it was

Playa Del Carmen

Balcony shot.

Shortly we were off the boat waiting to get on another boat

for our shore excursion...

The Secret River

..... && then he has enough of pictures.

Baaahahahaha!!!

He slept on my shoulder for the rest of the boat ride to

the other side : Playa Del Carmen

Up there...

that guy....

he was our taxi service.

I may or may not have been trying to memorize Aaron's

SSN in case some Lifetime Movie scenes went down.

Nahhh... even thought I was nervous.

He was really nice.

Once we got into the area where the caves / secret river was...

we had to change into wet suits & put all our belongings in lockers.

We even had to take showers to wash any lotions or body oils off our bodies

outside... {in our suits} to protect the water.

We even had to pray before entering the cave.. only it was in a language I/We

could NOT understand. Let alone these was this little ceramic doll...

sitting on the tree to the right.

I pretty much knew my life was over at that point.

I was a bit freaked.

Ohhh how I wanted pictures in our wet suits but they were

absolutely horrific. I couldn't quit laughing.

I knew we were going under ground.

I knew we'd be in cold water.

I knew we'd be in a cave.

What I did NOT know was ...

A} it was pitch black dark.

B} We worn a one small light on our forehead to see...WTH?

C} there were bats

D} The brochure showed BLUE water not pitch black.

E} how 80 ft below sea level felt like.

Whoa.

This was a photo we bought afterwards.

I took a picture of a picture which is why there is a glare.

Overall. It was great.

Even though there were moments of doubts {even Aaron}

for the most part it was absolutely awesome!

And the water ended up being blue, only because they hold a flashlight

underwater while snapping the picture. So they didn't just photoshop

the brochure.

We changed & they fed us this cheap disgusting lunch.

We walked the markets for like 2 seconds before getting

hounded by all the vendors. Yikes!

Found a burger shop...

& ate real lunch.

See the coke behind Aaron?

Yeah, well there was this guy who didn't take part of the cave because

after three minutes in he felt claustrophobic and freaked out.

We was on the strange side.

Yeah, well... we ate lunch with us.

... not to mention he smoked us out. Blahhhh.

We hit the beach for a short amount of time before it was time to get back

on the mini boat to head to Cozumel.

Once again...

he's scoping only this time to find something rather odd.

A fish ... but very odd fish.

Back on the ship we went.

&&

instead of dinner

we ate pizza while watching the first game of NFL season.

The whole cruise was pretty much watching it...

&& with in no time...

this is what I ended up doing

Yep!

Once again...

I was sleeping.

Day Five

Fun Day at Sea

&& Bingo...

losing again.

Only once in our cruising lifetime Aaron has won

$250. It keeps us hoping.

I told Aaron we needed to come back with some kind of story about our

time on the ship. Putt-putt wasn't gonna cut it.

It felt like we slept so much.

Oh wait. We did.

So we signed up to play Giant Jenga.

We won second place.

Last Night-

Dinner.

their farewell dance/song

Watched a WONDERFUL show.

{I didn't even straighten my mange}

Ended up our night with me winning at Roulette.......

... but we still went home short.

Whoops.

And that Saturday we took our time getting home.

Everyone said Seven Day cruises were too long but we were wishing for more honeymooning. It was just too short.

Pre-baby times, we liked to cruise at least once a year. I am totally coveting your pictures right now. We've had many conversations at our house lately about the next available time we have to hop on a ship!

On our very last cruise we actually got an interior room---no windows---and it was the best. freakin. sleep. of. my. life!

I love cruises. 7 day cruises are not too long...do listen to those people lol. I think 7 day cruises are perfect. We've been to the Grand Cayman Islands and Cozumel before. We went to the beach in Grand Cayman and swam with the dolphins in Cozumel. Oh and I love the free drinks and banquet that Carnival has for repeat cruisers :)

I loved EVERYTHING about this post! Number one, you two are a very stunning couple! GAW-DAYUM girl lol!! But seriously, looked like everything was awesome. You know how I like cruising and I have always wanted to visit the Grand Caymans. One day...one day :)

This is really making me craze a nice tropical getaway. Makes me think we should have a honeymoon every anniversary. I am lovin this Honeymoon recap. Glad yal had a great time and I loved hearing and seeing all the fun pictures. BTW girl You look great!

love this :) so funny that he told you now that you are married, you have to order off the dollar menu... and we slept so much on our honeymoon, too!! wedding planning/the whole weekend of events is seriously exhausting.

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